RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media on international events, featuring reports on the first session of the new Ukrainian Parliament and Kiev’s preparations to terminate Ukraine’s membership in the CIS, as well as EU permanent representatives’ announcement of planned sanctions against the leadership of the unrecognized breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine.

Expert
Magazine reports on the first session of the new Ukrainian Parliament. As was
expected, Arseniy Yatsenyuk remained President of the Cabinet of Ministers,
while the chair of Speaker was given to Volodymyr Groysman. The publication
notes that this fact alone represents an important victory for Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko over the prime minister.

Moreover,
Poroshenko presented the deputies with a message in which he outlined the
country's future course. The president announced that the established peace in the
Donbass region of eastern Ukraine "does not mean an exclusion of a
military threat from the East," which "will be taken into
consideration for many years to come and which will require substantial efforts
and enormous resources." Expert explains that Poroshenko is thus trying to
maintain the level of social mobilization against an external threat, which
helps smoothen the contradictions within the governing coalition and form a
national self-awareness in the population.

Expert
also writes that the Ukrainian President backed Yatsenyuk's earlier statement
about appointing foreign citizens to ministerial posts. The publication reminds
its readers that Yatsenyuk was primarily talking about the Ministry of European
Integration. Poroshenko suggested appointing a foreign specialist as head of
the anti-corruption bureau.

According
to Expert, in his parliamentary address the Ukrainian president categorically
rejected any proposals of federalizing Ukraine. "There will be no
federalization," the publication cites Poroshenko. "This is a
response to advisers in the East and in the West." He also announced his
intention to cancel Ukraine's non-aligned status.

The
Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper writes that Ukraine's Parliament, the Verkhovna
Rada, has begun working to register the bill on terminating Ukraine's
membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The authors of the
document are representatives from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the People's
Front, and Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party. Moskovsky Komsomolets reminds
its readers that on Nov. 14 Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers liquidated the post
of Plenipotentiary for Cooperation with Russia, the CIS Countries and the
Eurasian Economic Community. Previously, Petro Poroshenko had recalled
Ukraine's Representative to the CIS Executive Committee.

The
Kommersant newspaper writes that EU permanent representatives have agreed to
make additions to the sanctions lists. According to the newspaper's sources in
the EU, 13 representatives of the unrecognized Donetsk and Lugansk republics in
the Donbass, who will not be allowed entry to EU territory, and five
organizations, which will be imposed with financial sanctions, have been added
to the list. The individuals and organizations were blacklisted in relation to
their participation in actions that undermine Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Kommersant reminds its readers that the decision to expand the sanctions was
based on the illegal, in the West's opinion, elections in the Donbass on Nov. 2
and the militias' alleged increase in military potential thanks to Russia's
support.

Moreover,
EU permanent representatives discussed the expansion of restrictions on
investments in the economy of Crimea as part of "the policy of aggressive
non-recognition" of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, writes the
newspaper. This decision is also expected to be taken shortly. Kommersant
sources do not exclude that during the EU summit in Brussels in December a
series of European leaders will raise the issue of expanding sanctions against separate
sectors of the Russian economy.

Meanwhile,
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that calls for new
sanctions against Russia demonstrate "a dangerous incomprehension" of
the situation, writes the newspaper. "An isolated, economically weakened
Russia cannot make a contribution to the stabilization of Ukraine, but can
become a great danger to itself and to others, which is why I do not recommend
this path," Kommersant cites the German foreign minister as saying.